Thus much concerning the inquiry: we are now to consider,

II. Secondly, the reply which our Saviour made to it. In which reply there are two things observable; the manner and the matter of it.

As to the manner of it, we see, it is not direct and positive; but so ordered only, as to give them an occasion of answering that question themselves, which they had proposed to our blessed Saviour. This method, ast it was agreeable to his conduct in other cases, and requisite to secure him from the accusations of those who watched his words, whenever he taught in public, so had it this further use in it; that it imprinted a conviction on the inquirers, after the most gentle, reasonable and winning way, without commanding and extorting their assent by an authoritative declaration of the truth, which he thus invited them to receive. The proper motives and evidences only were laid before them; and they afterwards were left to frame the conclusion from thence; that so their faith, which was to entitle them to such glorious privileges, might be a free and voluntary act, and the test of an ingenuous and well-disposed mind.

As to the matter of our Saviour's answer, three things there are which deserve to be weighed by us.-The remarkable gradation and rise there is in the particulars there mentioned: the appositeness of it in relation to the inquirers: and the general force and evidence of the argument contained in it.

1. To begin with the first of these: Go and shew John again, says our Saviour, those things which ye do hear and see; and then he particularly mentions the bodily cures he wrought on the deaf and blind, the lame and the lepers. He adds beyond this a yet plainer instance of a miraculous and divine power, the dead are raised up; and he seems to advance still somewhat further, when he says, that even the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. An instance of goodness and condescension, with which the Jews had before been but little acquainted! The prophets of that nation had been sent always to great and mighty persons, to reclaim

C 2

their princes and rulers, and to reprove exemplary wickedness in high places; and to manifest the authority of their commission to them, were sometimes armed with the power of miracles. But nothing could be more wonderful, than to see a prophet in Jewry preaching to the poor and meek; addressing himself to the lowest and meanest of men; exhorting them to virtue, removing their prejudices, and rectifying their errors! Such applications amidst that people were so unusual, and exceeding rare, that our Saviour thought fit to conclude the enumeration of the several proofs of his mission with these two particulars, The dead are raised up, says he, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them.

2. The appositeness of our Saviour's answer, in relation to the persons who made the inquiry, is what we are next to consider. And here,

First, we may observe, what a natural occasion he takes of resolving their doubts, from what he was even then saying and doing in their presence, Go, and shew John again, those things which ye do hear and see: that is, you come to learn of me, whether I am the Messiah: your master hath often told you, that I am; but ye will not believe him. To him you should have given ear, who is my professed harbinger and herald; to me it belongs not so properly to proclaim my own titles, and assert my own authority. For if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true, John v. 31. It is liable to suspicion, and likely to be of little weight and authority with you. If ye suspect your master's testimony of me, much more will ye suspect that which I give of myself. Behold therefore the testimony of God! for the works which I do, (which ye now see done before your eyes, they) bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me, John v. 36. If ye still doubt who I am, why ask ye me? Ask the works, which you cannot doubt whether I do or not; and they shall tell you.

Secondly, nothing could be better contrived to satisfy these inquirers, of our Saviour's pre-eminence over the Baptist, than these wonders which they saw him perform, and heard him now appeal to; since they

knew very well, that their master had not the gift of miracles, nor pretended to the power of doing them; and could not therefore but see, that his ministry was inferior to that of Christ, and subordinate to it; especially since from the Baptist's own mouth they had learnt, that the doing of miracles should be one illustrious and discriminating mark of the Messiah; for so much I think, that passage in the Gospel of St. John sufficiently implies,-Many who resorted unto Jesus said, John did no miracles; but all things which John spake of this man, were true, John x. 41; that is, though he did none himself, yet he prophesied that Jesus should do them; and when his disciples therefore saw that prediction fulfilled, they were able themselves to answer their own question, Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another? Further,

Thirdly, the particular facts which our Saviour here mentions, in order to insinuate his pre-eminence over the Baptist, are extremely well suited to that purpose. They are all acts of beneficence and kindness, wrought for the service and benefit of men, either for the instruction of their minds, or the healing of their bodies. And this, he tacitly suggests to them, was a far nobler employment, and carried in it a much greater degree of perfection and use, than the solitary life and rigid austerities of the Baptist, for which his disciples held him in such high veneration. He hints to them the reasons, for which he lived and conversed thus publickly and familiarly, and applied himself to men in the most humane, easy, and affable manner, without distinguishing himself from others by any rough and frightening appearances, any thing extraordinary and singular either in his look, attire or behaviour (for which the Baptist was remarkable ;) and he leaves them (even in this respect) to consider, whether his character was not superior to that of their master, and his administration ordained to more excellent purposes; and therefore he concludes his reply with words, which have an cye to those prejudices they had entertained against him on

this account; Blessed are they, who are not offended in

me.

Beyond all this, it is, in the

Fourth place, extremely remarkable, that the answer of our Lord to these inquiring disciples is expressed in words taken from a prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Messiah. And Isaiah was, of all the prophets, he, in whose writings the Baptist's followers were the most conversant, and for whom they had the greatest esteem and reverence; inasmuch as their master was there more particularly pointed out, the person and office of this crier in the wilderness was there more exactly described, than in any other part of the sacred volume. And therefore what this prophet testified concerning the Messiah, was best suited to work those into a reception of him, who had been led by his testimony to discern even their master himself, and to become his followers.

Now the places here referred to in Isaiah, are these, chap. lxi. 1. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. Ευαγελίσασθαι τοῖς πιωχοίς, as it is in the translation of the Septuagint; and the very same phrase is employed here in the text, wxol evαysenigosa, the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. The rest of the particulars may be almost entirely supplied from another passage in the xxxvth of the same prophet, ver. 4, 5, 6. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

It is very probable that the Baptist himself might have an eye to this passage, when he sent his doubting disciples with this question to our Saviour, Art thou he that should come? Since we find there a promise, within the compass of a few words, twice repeated, that God would come, would come, to save his people; and therefore our Saviour, very appositely, sent them back again to the same prophet in his reply, and taught them by

that means to understand the true drift and meaning of their master's question. It is as if he had said, You believe not the Baptist's testimony, that I am he who should come; yet surely Isaiah, upon whose authority ye have received the Baptist himself, will find credit with you; and he hath thus prophesied of me.

Every way, we see the answer of our blessed Redeemer was so wisely and graciously contrived, as to meet with all the prejudices and dispel all the doubts of these inquirers, and to lead them into an acknowledgment that they had found the Messiah whom they sought, him who was to come, and were no longer to look for

another.

3. Nay, these words carry in them (as I in the third place observed) an argument of more general use and influence, and propose to us all the chief marks and characters of such miracles, as are sufficient to confirm the authority of any person pretending to be sent by God '; and all of which concurred in the miracles done by our Messiah; as any unprejudiced person, who compares them together, may easily perceive. I shall but just mention them as they are hinted to us in the words of our Saviour's reply, and leave the further consideration of them to your private meditations. Now the

1. Mark and character of such a miracle, as can be the proper evidence of a divine mission, is, that it be above the known powers of all natural causes: and such were all the instantaneous cures here mentioned ; and particularly the raising men from the dead.

2. A second character is, that they be done publickly and in the face of the world, that there may be no room to suspect artifice and collusion. And such were the wonders to which our Lord appealed. Go tell John again, says he, those things which ye do hear and see; which are done here before your eyes, and in the midst of a great multitude.

3. A third thing requisite is that the doctrine which they are brought to vouch be every way worthy of God, and fit thus to be sealed and attested by him. The